Defending the Damned: Inside Chicago's Cook County Public Defender's Office [Hardcover]

Kevin Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2007

Chicago was the nation's deadliest city in 2001, recording 666 homicides. For lawyers in the Cook County Public Defender's Office Murder Task Force, that meant a steady flow of new clients. Eight out of ten people arrested for murder in Chicago are represented by public defenders. They're assigned the most challenging and seemingly hopeless cases, yet they always fight to win.

One of those lawyers is Marijane Placek, a snakeskin boot-wearing, Shakespeare-quoting nonconformist whose courtroom bravado and sharp legal skills have made her a well-known figure around the courthouse. When an ex-convict was arrested on charges of killing a Chicago police officer that deadly year, Placek got the high-profile case, and her defense forms the hub around which the book's narrative revolves.

Veteran journalist Kevin Davis reveals the compelling true story of a team of battle-scarred lawyers fighting against all odds. Unflinching, gripping, and full of surprises, Defending the Damned is an unforgettable human story and engaging courtroom drama where life and death hang in the balance. Davis explores the motives that compel these lawyers to come to work in this dark corner of the criminal justice system and exposes their insular and often misunderstood world.

This groundbreaking work comes at a time when the country has seen how wrongful convictions have slipped through the system, that innocent people have been sent to death row, and that some police have lied or coerced suspects into confessing to crimes they did not commit. Such flaws drive these public defenders even harder to do their jobs, providing scrutiny to a long ignored and often broken system.

Davis's reporting offers an unvarnished account of public defenders as never seen before. A powerful melding of courtroom drama and penetrating truecrime journalism, Defending the Damned is narrative nonfiction at its finest.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A colorful lawyer and a cop killing are at the center of this skillfully crafted narrative look at the Murder Task Force of Chicago's public defender's office. A veteran crime reporter, Davis focuses on the case of Aloysius Oliver, a 26-year-old ex-convict charged with fatally shooting undercover police officer Eric Lee. In sharp journalistic prose, Davis portrays a variety of public defenders driven by idealism, ambition and the excitement of legal battles. At the heart of this story is Oliver's lawyer, Marijane Placek, an excellent lawyer and a character who loves "high profile, seemingly impossible cases" like a cop killing. Placek views the court as a stage where she performs before a hostile audience. Despite her best efforts to prove that Oliver's confession was coerced with physical abuse, that he didn't know Lee was a police officer and did not intend to fire his weapon, the jury found him guilty; the judge gave him life without parole. Davis ably captures the drama of the courtroom and makes a powerful case for the necessity of the often unpopular public defenders within the criminal justice system, conveying their dedication to obtaining justice for their clients. (Apr. 3)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Kevin Davis gets so far inside the story that you would swear he was sitting right there at the defense table. With a journalist's keen eye for telling detail and dialogue, he has written a completely gripping and revealing assessment of what is not only going on in our courtrooms but in our society as well. Defending the Damned is a great and important book." -- Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author of Echo Park

"Stunningly real and poetically unromantic, Defending the Damned delivers us into a world of accused monsters and the complex souls who have sworn to stand by them. Davis's subjects trust him -- an astonishing result in a part of Chicago where trust disappears first -- and he hears everything they say." -- Robert Kurson, author of Shadow Divers

"In his remarkable narrative, Kevin Davis uncovers the true heroes of the court system. This is one of those rare books that will change your mind about lawyers." -- Gerry Spence, bestselling author of How to Argue and Win Every Time

"With a true journalist's reverence for truth and accuracy, Kevin Davis presents a raw and real version of the way our legal system works from a side that rarely comes into the light, but one our democracy cannot survive without." -- Jonathon King, Edgar Award-winning crime novelist and author of Eye of Vengeance

"Kevin Davis brings the reader into Chicago's courtrooms and into the lives of the lawyers who handle the criminal justice system's toughest cases. Defending the Damned reads like a fast-paced novel but delivers with realism and compassion a compelling, insider's look into capital murder trials." -- Alafair Burke, author of Close Case --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books; First Edition edition (April 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743270932
• ISBN-13: 978-0743270939
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #981,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally riveting: the story of those who defend society's worst - and the rest of us June 17, 2007

By Jerry Saperstein HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Few people leave any lasting mark on the world, their lives soon forgotten. Kevin Davis, with this singular book, will be remembered long after his life is over. It may seem overwrought to compare "Defending The Damned" with, say, "All Quiet On The Western Front", but after you've read Davis's book, you'll see the comparison is very apt.

Davis takes us deep into a world that the vast majority of us will thankfully never have the opportunity to experience directly. It is the world of those who labor on the Murder Task Force of the Cook County [Illinois] Public Defender's Office. Here a small group of men and women, lawyers investigators and others, daily protect the legal rights of some of the foulest creatures to walk the face of the earrh. A mother who cuts up the corpse of her freshly murdered infant and deep-fries the parts. A man who gets his natural daughter pregnant and than beats her to death.

As one of the lawyers asks "How do you come home and explain that you just saved the life of a serial killer who smoked crack and murdered three women?"

Kevin Davis does an incredible job of explaining just that. He profiles several of the lawyers and their helpers who fighr every day to protect the legal rights of the accused - - - an incredibly important job that few people appreciate - - - and then try to keep the state from executing those of their clients who are found guilty of murder.

I am a proponent of capital punishment: those who murder deserve to die in return. It is only just. But I have a caveat: capital punishment should only be imposed when the accused has received a truly full and impartial trial, represented by highly competent counsel and provided with all the resources so readily available to the state, such as expert witnesses. Effectively this means capital punishment, in my opinion, is rarely acceptable.

There either been a spate of books lately on the criminal justice system or I've simply been reading more of what's available. Davis's work ties for a mythical first place with David Feige's "Indefensible: One Lawyer's Journey into the Inferno of American Justice". Davis's book provides an overview of life in the public defender's office, while Feige provides first-hand perspective from a former public defender. Both are to be read by anyone interested in the criminal justice system.

John Grisham provides a terrifying narrative of whar happens when the criminal justice system fails in "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town".

Finally, the old-time liberal view of blame the victim and society is on display in Steve Bogira's "Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse".

Davis doesn't bring an axe to grind. He reports on the everyday work of public defenders like Marijane Placek, who comes across as an eccentric who is absolutely dedicated to the ideals of Americsn justice. Davis also give fair hearings to the prosecutors, judges, victims and their families and the murderers themselves. It is truly a tour de force rarely seen these days. The objective reporter telling the story.

There isn't a page in the book that isn't in some way compelling. Kevin Davis need never write another book: his reputation is made with "Defending The Damned".

There will be many people who find the work of Marijane Placek and her colleagues in the public defender's office to be reprehensible: their business is to defend some of the most vile people imaginable. The truth is that their work must not only be respected, but must be appreciated for these men and women are protecting the Constitutional rights of all of us when they vigorously defend the rights of these reprehensible people. Why they do it, what motivates them, what keeps them in the fray is what Kevin Davis describes so well. Never overtly stated, but always present is also the message that when these public defenders fight to protect the rights of the worst among us, they are also protecting our rights.

"Defending The Damned" is simply a must-read.

Jerry

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars inside view of the work of the Chicago Public Defender's office June 6, 2007

By Henry Berry

Format:Hardcover

Kevin Davis's intellectual curiosity and witness make for an absorbing, elucidating tale about the lawyers at the Chicago Cook County Public Defender's Office. The field of criminology and the varied individuals from accused criminals to their public defenders, prosecutors, judges, and ordinary citizens who become involved in the criminal justice system one way or another are this award-winning journalist's chosen subject matter. Davis is a recipient of a Robert F. Kennedy Award for outstanding journalism who has written for USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Crain's Chicago Business and other prominent periodicals as well as legal journals.

While at a particularly gruesome murder trial, Davis became gripped by the question of "how [the public defender] and her...colleagues were able to represent clients accused of such horrible crimes day after day, year after year, while keeping a safe emotional distance and preserving their sanity." He got into the position of being able to witness how they did this by being given unprecedented access to the attorneys, related personnel, and activity of the Cook County Public Defender's Office. And he availed himself as much as possible to relevant public documents and conducted interviews with both relatives of victims and the accused, among others.

A central figure is the public defender Marijane Placek, "fifty-four years old [with] bobbed hair...dyed golden blond with streaked highlights" given to wearing "snakeskin cowboy boots...when she wanted to look like a gunslinger." Placek is the lead public defender in the case of the murder of an undercover police officer--a case which allows Davis to give much attention also to the prosecutors and the police which are other necessary parts of the criminal justice system. In such a case of a murder of a police officer, prosecutors predictably try to "steal the flag," in the words of the public defenders' Murder Task Force chief Shelton Green; which means, they'll try to play up the normal public sympathy toward police officers to weigh the trial, including a sentence, heavily against the accused.

With a novelist's eye and human interest and a professional journalist's interest in and grasp of the law, Davis writes a consummate example of today's popular genre of creative nonfiction which casts a beam of light into one of democratic society's most disturbing areas and uncomfortable responsibilities.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A novel approach to reporting, A Page Turner May 22, 2007

By Betty Fox

Format:Hardcover

Kevin Davis has turned straight reporting into a novel. I couldn't wait to return to "the story". Not only was I educated as to how the courts work, I learned about real people who defend the lowest form of criminality, their thought processes, their behaviors, warts and all, and the relevance of their existence. I've never given a second thought to the impact of court decisions as it relates to human beings and human behavior. It wouldn't do any harm for the criminal element in our society to read this book in order to understand how important a role the public defender plays in their life when they are at the end of their rope and even possibly think twice before turning the corner into a life of crime. Kevin Davis did a service to the community of law and order by producing an intelligent, profound, easy to read book.